Calcium phosphate compounds, in particular hydroxyapatite, have an excellent biocompatibility and their use as biomaterials in medical or dental fields has been widely investigated.
It has been widely investigated that hydroxyapatite is used as medical and dental bone prosthesis or granulated bone prosthesis because of their excellent biocompatibility and osteo-conductivity, and several products have been utilized practically.
Conventionally, two types of bone prosthesis have been used, i.e., a granulated bone prosthesis and a block-form bone prosthesis which has been molded into a desired form before use (as described, e.g., in Transactions of the 11th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biomaterials, page 112 (1985); J. Periodontol., vol. 56, page 63 (1985); J. Prosthet. Dent., vol. 49, page 461 (1983); Transactions of the 8th Annual Meeting of the Society of Biomaterials, page 100 (1982); J. Orthop. Res., vol. 3(1), page 65 (1985); and Abstract of Sintering 87, page 614 (1987)). The granulated bone prosthesis has been widely used because it can be filled freely in a bone defect having any shape.
However, the granulated bone prosthesis is often scattered and lost before the prosthesis accretes to regenerated bone. In order to avoid this disadvantage, i.e., to prevent the lost of the granulated prosthesis by fixing, it has been investigated to use fibrin adhesive as a fixing agent, but the use of fibrin adhesive has possibility of incurring hepatitis, aquired immune deficiency syndrome or the like infections because fibrin adhesive is made from human blood.